ALWAYS REFORMING: A sinner saved by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone adhering to Scripture alone to bring about reform personally, for his family, church, and world to the glory of God alone.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

He was wondering how a man weighing 600 pounds could teach people about self-discipline.

Recently, I came across the following 8 questions, some of which I've also wondered about.

I've added two of my own at the end.

1. Why do phones and calculators/computers have different number pads? To wit:

Phone:1234567890

Calculator/Computer:7894561230

2. Why do hockey games have 3 periods rather than 2 halves or 4 quarters? And why are points used to determine standings, rather than straight won-loss percentages?

3. How are railroads able to use freight cars that belong to other railroads? United doesn’t fly jets belonging to Southwest — so why should Burlington Northern let Norfolk Southern use its freight cars?

4. Why is whiskey sold in fifths?

5. There’s a metric scale for measuring just about everything — weight, distance, volume, even temperature (Celsius is derived from the metric system) — except for one thing — time. How come there’s never been a metric calendar/time system, with, say, 10 metric months of 10 metric days each, each metric day composed of 10 metric hours, each metric hour composed of 100 metric minutes, and each metric minute composed of 100 metric seconds (which would be different from the seconds currently used)? (I’m surprised that countries that use the metric system have no problem with the “non-metric” way we measure time).

6. Why is Newfoundland a half hour different from other time zones?

7. Why don’t doctors dispense medicine or employ pharmacists in their offices, so we can have one-stop health care and save a trip to the drugstore?

8. Why don’t cell phones have dial tones?

9. If you share the hair on your arm (for example) the hair will grow back. However, it only grows back to a certain length and then it stops growing. How does it know how long to get and than grow no further?

10. If my internal body temperature (and yours) is to be 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, then why am I not cold with an external temperature less than that (say 95 degrees) and only warm when the outside temperature exceeds my 98.6?

2 Comments:

Probably I could have gone to my grave never having observed any of these things. I'm often blind to such things. But I will say that the three periods in hockey bothers me. There is something unnatural about it. I have tried several times to acquire a taste for hockey, but to no avail. This may be part of the reason.